Impact of community based organisation on the socio - economic development of the rural communities: a case of Kakamega south district, Kakamega county

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Abstract

Community based organizations in rural areas serve to empower the poor by giving them
a collective bargain. They build a countering power with which to conform to the powerful
economic, social and politic
al forces. They are usually formed by homogeneous membership as
women and youth and serve in shaping the future of their communities through participation in
community development initiatives. Development is about change, which involves the business
of li
berating people from the chains of poverty that have kept them bound for a long period of
time. This process cannot be done successfully by anyone else but the poor themselves. This is
because the local people are more knowledgeable about themselves and th
eir communities than
outsiders. Community development is an involving process that should integrate the vulnerable
and the overlooked segments of the locality; the women and the youth. Women constitute the
world largest population, but their poverty level
is greater than that of men, with clear
disparities in education, employment opportunities and decision making power. Many national
government, development organization have addressed the problem of poverty and
underdevelopment but with less focus on the r
ural women and therefore the need to mobilize
the political will to target the these strata of the rural population both as participants and the
beneficiaries of the development policies , programs and projects .In analyzing the vicious cycle
of poverty
. Women have to participate in the process through their informal and formal
association,
emphasizing
that these associations are key vehicles in imp
lementing programs of
education, social development
,
welfare and vocational training
. Rural development pro
grams
such as agriculture totally depend on the youth who represent the link between the present and
the future as well as reservoir of labour. Youth participation in development
should
be
considered both as a strategy and a product towards national sustai
nable development with an
objective of expanding the human
capabilities of those involved
, through building assets and
networks. The
study sought to establish, whether community based organizations have an
impact on the socio
-
economic development of ru
ral communities of Kakamega South District
.It will be guided by the following research objectives ; to determine the impact of Agriculture,
education, health and Agricultural programs and activities of these organizations on the socio
-
economic developme
nt of Kakamega south District, to assess the impact of education on the
socio
-
economic development of Kakamega South District, to establish the impact of
entrepreneurship on the socio
-
economic development of Kakamega South District. The study
adopted a su
r
vey research design which was
most efficient and economical i
s most efficient
.
The sample of t
he study was included
sixty (
60)
both women and youth
groups,
which
included
respondents.
Data was collected by use of questionnaires for the groups and for the g
overnment
officials. The data was analyzed by the descriptive statistics
-
percentages, frequencies and the
inferential statistics
–
the spearman‟s rank correlation to measure the strength of relationship
between the communities based organizations and the s
ocio
-
economic development. The
results found out that, there was a
relationship between community
-
based organization and
socio
-
economic development (
P> 0.05)
.
It is therefore the opinion of the researcher
that,
there
shall be more collaboration between go
vernment agencies and the community based
organization for the improved socio
-
economic standards of the rural
communities